Thrust bearings employing pads against which a rotating thrust ring acts are known. Such bearings with rigid geometry members or pads forming a load carrying film with rigid mountings are known. These bearings are sensitive to contaminating particles carried by the gas. A second type employs rigid geometry members or pads to form a load carrying film with compliant mountings. To date these use elastomeric materials in a compliant mounting. Such materials are severely temperature limited, and do not have adequate stiffness for machines with close tolerance impellers in which axial movement of the rotor must be limited. They are not as sensitive to contaminating particles as the first type. A third type use foil arrangements. These can be started and stopped without external pressurization and are still less sensitive to contaminating particles. Nevertheless, these have limited stiffness. Attempts to increase stiffness have until now led to problems with starting torque and power loss.